HERALD: The BJP government came to power on the basis of performance. They criticised your government saying that it had not performed. How do you compare the performance of both these governments?
DIGAMBAR KAMAT: I led a coalition government. To run a coalition government is not easy. I had a lot of heavy weights in my cabinet who had been former chief ministers. In spite of all these odds I steered my government for five years. I’m the only CM to have completed five years and given a stable government after statehood. Compared to my government the BJP came to power with a clear majority of 21 seats. When you have a clear majority you can do lots of things. If you see their performance, you will see that it has been miserable. Today people are questioning what happened to their assurances. They have not fulfilled any of the assurances like Regional Plan, 50,000 jobs, unemployment allowance and casinos. They promised to bring down VAT on petrol to 0 percent.
HERALD: When BJP came to power in 2012, it had accused the Congress government of many things. Corruption and family raj were two of the main reasons touted. How do you manage to go into these polls and counter these allegations?
DK: I believe there were some candidates who were already MLAs, for example, Rane and his son, Babush Monserrate and his wife, Churchill Alemao and Joaquim Alemao were all MLAs. So except for them, 2-3 more tickets were given to these family members.
HERALD: How has the Congress managed to capitalise on BJP’s U turns?
DK: See, the last two years we coordinated with the independent MLAs and tried to put on a very good show in the Assembly by targeting certain issues agitating the minds of the people. One was casinos, second was the Regional Plan, third was changing the definition of the coconut tree and fourth was corruption of this government like the beach cleaning scam. My government used to clean the beaches within Rs 1.70 crore.
HERALD: Your manifesto has given a lot of populist schemes. But are these schemes in the manifesto implementable?
DK: I think they are implementable. When I was CM, I had chaired the 6th Pay Commission, immediately within one month. At that time mining royalties were Rs 36 crore. Now they are saying that mining royalties have stopped. The government is in trouble. With Rs 36 crore we implemented the 6th Pay commission.
HERALD: What is the message with which you going to elections? What is your message?
DK: We are saying you have experienced this government of five years, they have cheated the people. They’ve assured the people one thing and have failed on their promises. Not a single promise, whether it is Regional Plan which even today stands notified. My government notified the regional plan 2021. This has not been denotified by the BJP government.
HERALD: What is your take on casinos? Because the GPCC has apologised and said that we have made a mistake. Should they be there or shouldn’t?
DK: Casinos earlier were in 5 star hotels. The system there was whoever took a package they used to give him 300 coins to play. In hotels, hardly anybody used to go there. Now during the fag end of the tenure, I had circulated a note saying that based on Nevada gaming regulations, Goa gambling regulations should be framed. Unfortunately the code of conduct came and it remained. But now this government had promised in the Assembly that they within six months they will come out with the regulations. They also said they would come out with a regulation that no Goan enters casinos. In five years they have not done any of this. On the contrary, fees which I had increased to Rs 2000 was brought down to Rs 500.
HERALD: But are you in favour of moving them out of the Mandovi?
DK: Offshore casinos have not been defined in the act. It cannot be in the Mandovi. It can go away. During my tenure, many people came and said that if given permission they would locate the casino where it cannot be seen. They would locate it mid sea. They would take all the guests by helicopter. I think Goans will not mind for such type of casinos.
HERALD: About the charge against you in the Louis Berger case. Has it affected you politically?
DK: This matter was started before the municipal elections. I had categorically said that time that this is a classic case of framing somebody with help of the authority concerned because Louis Berger case is a case where top executives of their company defrauded the company. See they had lots of vice presidents working in South east asia. They defrauded the company of thousands of crores. When the verdict was done, the company realised that 3 or 4 vice presidents are the main culprits. They filed a case against them in the court of law in America where one of the vice presidents produced some email sent by somebody. It is based on that email which says to get some contract in Goa they have paid have paid some money to a minister and officers. This is the only email which is available on record there. Nobody says who called them. Who met whom. Who paid money. Who demanded money. How no name of anybody, I was not minister that time. I was the CM. I categorically said that I have nothing to do with this case because not a single file of this project has been put up to the CM or the finance minister. Fortunately I got all the papers under RTI.
HERALD: The mining scam happened during your tenure. The Shah Commission was constituted and its report came out with a figure of Rs 35000 crore. And that has become a big campaign issue. Your first thoughts on this.
DK: See Shah commission was appointed under a Public Men’s Commission of Enquiry Act. Basic foundation or principal of the act is that before passing any remarks or comments on anybody you are supposed to give a hearing to the concerned authority, persons or anybody. He has a right to represented by his lawyer through the cross questioning. Nothing can be mentioned in the report. And that is why when the petition was filed in the Supreme Court, if you go through the judgement of the 3 judge bench.
HERALD: You are talking about the 435/1
DK: Exactly! You go through the entire judgement. Lots of things were demanded. But the judgement was very clear. The judgement did not cast a single aspersion on my government. Judgement is very clear and they have actually scrapped the charge. Only they did not mention it but they came close to it.
HERALD: They have basically said that mining should have regulated.
DK: No. They categorially mentioned that we are not scrapping it. It cannot be used for any prosecution. That solves my problem. If they were able to produce something against my government, they would have castigated my government. There was not a single line which speaks that this government headed by Digambar Kamat had played some mischief.
HERALD: How confident now are you of the Congress coming to power?
DK: I have gone to many constituencies. Overall mood of the people is that this government should not come back. This is very clear. In some constituencies, it is for Congress. In others, there may be a split of votes but I feel people in such constituencies will do strategic voting. They will wait till the last minute and they will say who will be able to defeat the BJP candidate. They may put entire force behind that candidate to see that the BJP candidate is defeated.
HERALD: So are you saying that the Congress will get a greater majority and that the question of alliances will not arise?
DK: I am quite confident. The way I’m seeing it and getting reports there is a some sort of wave. If you say that there is an anti-BJP wave or that people don’t want BJP to come to power then alternative is only Congress because Congress is the only party which has a strong foundation in all the constituencies which cannot be denied.
HERALD: As far as Margao is concerned, I would say that politics is really uncertain. But what is never uncertain is the Margao result which seems to be certain for many years. Why does this keep happening?
DK: Many people ask me if I do some magic on Madgavkars at the time of elections. I tell them that I’m in the hearts of Madgavkars. I love Madgavkars as I always say my first priority is Margao. I was born in Margao, I grew up in Margao. I will die in Margao.
